Door-operating mechanism.



S. JONES.

DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.17, 1910 Ill "" I INVENTOR Sherman cfones,

ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 30, 1912.

SHERMAN JONES, OF NEWARK, JERSEY.

DOOR-OPERATING- MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Iatent.

Application filed August 17, 1910. Serial No. 577,573.

Patented Apr. 30, 1912.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SHERMAN Jonns, a citizen of the United States, andresident of the city of Newark, in the county' of Essex and State of NewJersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Door-Operating Mechanism, of which the following is a specification. V

This invention relates to single and double acting sliding doors adaptedfor closing the opening of side doors for railroad cars, elevatoropenings and the like, the object being to provide a door which can beoperated at a distance only by an authorized person as it isself-locking, but in case of a panic can be immediately disconnectedfrom the operating means and opened by hand in the same way as anordinary hanging door.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of myinvention, showing a double door for a wide opening; parts are brokenaway for clearness of illustration. Fig. 2 is a sectional side view online 22 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an enlarged front elevation of the lockingand unlocking device; Fig. .1. is a side view of Fig. '3. Fig. 5 showsthe wiring plan and Fig. 6 is a modification of the operating means.

Similar reference characters parts in the several views.

For a wide opening, I prefer to use two doors, operated by a right andleft screw to cause the doors to move simultaneously toward or from themidline of the doorway, while for a comparatively narrow door, I maymake use of a single door operated by a screw threaded in one. directiononly a complete operative device, in this case, being shown in Fig. 1 tothe right of the center line 2-2.

I prefer indicate like to use electricity as a motive power, though amotor operated by compressed air and actuated by valves operated byelectricity can be used without changing the method of transmission orthe unlocking means.

The doors 1, 1' are suspended by any suitable hangers and sheaves, 2,running on a track 3, secured to the side of a car 4. Above the doorsand below the track, a shaft 5 provided with one or more threads, 6,-asrequiredis journaled in bearing brackets 7; one end 8, adapted to run ineither direction by proper winding and by a double throw switch,

of the shaft is connected to a motor,

9, which reverses the armature cur-- rent, together with the knifeswitches 1010 placed in the path of a finger 11 which is preferablyfastened to a hanger, shown in Figs. 1 .and 2, whereby the said switchesare operated, as will be more fully hereinafter described. To operatethe doors,

a divided fitting internally threaded to en-' gage the thread, 6, .ofthe shaft is fastened to the top or near the top of the door. Thisfitting is composed of two halves, 13, 13' slidable, mounted on asupport, 12, having gibs or other means of keeping the two halves inalinement. Each half has a pin 14 extending inward from the face andpassing through a vertical slot and through a cam or scroll slot 15in aplate 16 which is pivotallymounted by a screw 17 on the support 12. Thelower end of the plate 16 has an eye 16 to which a rod 18 is secured;this rod runs above the door to an L crank 19, to the upper leg of whichit is fastened, the other leg being connected with a sliding piece 20,similar in construction to the ordinary slide latch used on doubledoors. On the door 1 a similar device is shown with a slight alterationin construction due to the changed position. On said door the upper legof the L crank is directly connected with the eye 16 of the plate 18. Ineither case the operation of looking or unlocking is the same, as willbe fully hereinafter described. Fig. 6 shows a rack 21 on /top of thedoor and a worm 22 on the end of a shaft 5 connected to a motor 8 by auniversal joint 23, the end of the shaft being journaled in a bearing 24which, when the handle 25 is pulled, raisesthe worm out of contact withthe teeth in the rack, so that'the door'l is free to be moved by hand.

The wiring shown in Fig. 5 is a simple method of operating the motor,and while it may be departed from in certain details,-

door; switch 10 is'in series with the circuit when the switch 9 isreversed so as to the door.

' B is a dynamo or source of electricity close while E is a fusible cutout or circuit breaker, placed conveniently to switch 9.

Such being the construction, the operation is as follows: We will assumethat a railroad car is equipped with sidedoois having my improvement.The controlling switch 9 is placed at either end, convenient to thetrainsman. The doors being closed when the projecting button of theswitch is pushed in,the switch 10 being closed and in series with thecircuit,the motor revolves 0pening both doors, the finger 11 above thedoor closing the knife switch 10 which is in its path, but which is notthen in circuit. When the door 1 is open to its full limit, the saidfinger will have reached the switch 10' which it opens, thus cutting offthe current and stopping the motor. Switch 10 being now closed,everything is-ready for reversing, when the other button of thereversing. switch is pushed in, to close the doors; the operation willbe reversed, the finger 11 closing the switch 10-not in circuit-andopening the switch 10 as door closes, the position then being as shownin Fig. .1. In the eventof a panic or failure of the electric currentfor any cause, by pull ing down the sliding piece, 20 the rod, 18,pulling on the pivoted ,plate 16 causes it to assume the position shownby dotted 'lines in Figs. 3 and 4 whereby the threaded fitting 13-43will be separated by means of the scroll slots and pins and the door befree to move by hand in either direction. To lock the fitting on thethreaded shaft again, the operation is reversed.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawing,

the advantages of the construction and of the method of operation willbe readily apparent to those skilled in the art to which the inventionappertains, and while I have described the prlnciple of operation of theinvention which I now consider to be the best embodiment thereof, Idesire to have it understood that the device shown is merelyillustrative and that such changes may be made, when desired, as arewithin the scope of the claim.

Such being my invention, I claim- In combination, a door, a track,hangers carried by the door and traveling upon said track, a motor, athreaded shaft connected to and operated by said motor, fan interiorlythreaded sectional fitting carried by the door and engaging the threadsof the shaft whereby the door is shifted when the shaft is operated,means whereby the sections of said fitting can be shifted to disengagethe threads thereof from the threads of the shaft to permit of theshifting of the door manually, electrical means for throwing saidmotorinto operation, means carried by one of the hangers and engaging withsaid electrical means for controlling automatically the distance of doortravel, and means for changing the direction of current to the motor.

Signed at New York city in the county of New York and State of New Yorkthis 15th day of August A. D. 1910.

SHERMAN JONES.

